Creating a custom rule

You can create custom rules when the out-of-the-box normalization features do not meet your requirements for normalizing data. A custom rule sets attribute values for specified CIs and relationship instances by using AR System class qualification along with attribute expressions. For more information, see Normalization-and-custom-rules. 

To create a custom rule 

  1. On CMDB Portal, click Configurations.
  2. From the list, select Manage Normalization Rules > Features.
  3. Click the Custom tab.
    NE Custom rule1.png
  4. To create a new custom rule, click image2017-8-16 15:17:35.png icon.
    NE Custom rule2.png
  5. In the Create Custom rule page, configure the following parameters:

Parameters

Description

Rule Name

Enter a unique, descriptive name for the rule.

Active

Click to activate the rule so that the Normalization Engine can apply the rule on the data sets for which Custom normalization is enabled.

Note: If inactive, the custom rule is not applied, even if Custom normalization is enabled for a data set.

Group Name

Enter a group name for the rule. For example, you can create an Asset Management group that includes all the custom rules related to computer systems, disk drives, and database applications.

CI

(Optional) Click this tab, to apply the rule to CIs. Configure the following parameters:

Class Name (required) — Select the CI class name for which the rule is applicable.

Apply to Subclasses (Optional) — Select this check box if you want to apply the custom rule to all subclasses of the selected source and destination classes.

Qualifier (required) — Enter the qualification rule for the selected class, or to build the rule using the Qualification Builder, click Qualification_BuilderIcon.png,
For information about using the Qualification Builder, see .

Relationship

(Optional) Click this tab to apply the rule to Relationships. Configure the following parameters:

  • Class Name (required) — Select the relationship class name for which the rule applies.
  • Source Class Name (required) — Select the parent class in the relationship.
  • Destination Class Name (required) — Select the child class in the relationship.
  • Qualifier, Source Qualifier, Destination Qualifier (required) — For each of these parameters, enter the qualification rule for the class, source class, and destination class respectively. Alternatively, you can click Qualification_BuilderIcon.png and build the rule for each qualifier using the Qualification Builder.
    For information about using the Qualification Builder, see Using-the-Qualification-Builder.

Action

Perform the following actions:

  • From the Select Attribute list, select the attribute on which the Normalization Engine must perform the set attribute action.
  • Enter an expression and click OK. Alternatively, you can click Qualification_BuilderIcon.png and build the expression using the Qualification Builder. For information about using the Qualification Builder, see Using-the-Qualification-Builder.
  • (Optional) To append the value that is defined in the Qualification Builder to the existing value of the selected attribute, select the Append check box for the attribute. The original and appended values of the attribute are separated by a semicolon (:). The value that is defined in the Qualification Builder dialog box is appended to the existing value of the selected attribute only if the two values are different.

Note:

  • The Select Attribute list in the Action field does not display all the attributes of the CI or Relationship class that you select. The list includes only those attributes for which you can specify an action.
  • If you change the CI or Relationship class after you create the attribute expressions in the Action field, the actions that you specified are cleared.

      6. Click Save.
          The rule is available for normalization.

To edit a custom rule

  1. On CMDB Portal, click Configurations.
  2. From the list, select Manage Normalization Rules > Features.
  3. Click the Custom tab.
  4. Select a custom rule that you want to edit, and click image2017-8-16 15:16:54.png.
  5. On the Edit Custom Rule page, modify the fields as per To create a custom rule.

  6. Click Save.

    Note

    You cannot modify the Class Name or the class type (CI or Relationship) of an existing custom rule.

To delete a custom rule

Note

When you delete a custom rule, the attribute values updated by that rule are not reset to the original value. If you want to change the attribute values set by the custom rule, you must update the custom rule, and then run the normalization job. But if the CI is normalized, the rule will not run for the CI. Hence, the attribute is not corrected. You must change the normalization status of the CI to "modified after last normalization" before running the job, and then delete the custom rule.

  1. On CMDB Portal, click Configurations.
  2. From the list, select Manage Normalization Rules > Features.
  3. Click the Custom tab.
  4. Select the custom rule you want to delete, and click image2017-8-23 17:21:7.png.
  5. In the Delete Custom Rule dialog box, click OK to confirm the deletion.

To enable or disable custom rules for a data set

  1. On CMDB Portal, click Configurations.
  2. From the list, select Manage Normalization Rules > Dataset Configurations.

  3. On the Dataset Configurations page, select the data set for which you want to enable or disable the Custom rule, and click image2017-8-16 15:16:54.png.

    Dataset config.png

  4. On the All Datasets Configurations page, in the Supported Features section, select or clear the Custom check box to enable or disable the feature.
    dataset config 2.png

    Note

    Only rules that are active are executed.

  5. Click Save.

 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*